Caller information provision

ABSTRACT

By the present invention are disclosed a method for providing and a method for obtaining voice call related information from a first party device ( 100 ) to a second party device ( 200 ), prior to establishing a voice call between the first party device ( 100 ) and the second party device ( 200 ). Portable communication devices ( 100, 200, 500 ) for providing and obtaining of voice call related information also disclosed. The methods comprises sending/obtaining in real time the voice call related information (steps  304, 402 ) from the first party device ( 100 ) to the second party device ( 200 ) over a packet switched network, and sending/obtaining a call setup message (steps  308, 410 ) over a circuit switched network, of the voice call from the first party device ( 100 ), so that the voice call related information can be presented to a user of the second party device ( 200 ) before responding to the call setup message.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/817,123, filed Aug. 24, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,077,702, which isnational phase application under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT InternationalApplication No. PCT/EP2006/001499, which has an International filingdate of Feb. 20, 2006, which designated the United States of America andclaims priority to European Patent Application No. 05004174.8, filedFeb. 25, 2005, and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/659,462filed Mar. 8, 2005, which are all incorporated by reference herein.

The present invention relates to providing caller information servicesfor voice call telecommunication connections.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

One step of development of 2G and 3G communications networks is theintroduction of the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystems (IMS). IMSis one component of significant importance in the long term vision of anAll-IP network which would be able to carry all signaling communicationas well as traffic communication, including voice communication, overpacket switched (PS) networks.

IMS introduces a method for signaling over an IP network for callcontrol and session initiation using the session initiation protocol(SIP). The use of SIP signaling to initiate a session such as a phonecall, an Instant messaging session, etc. will make it possible for thecaller to send detailed information, for instance about himself, hisfull name and the purpose of the call or session, for instance “Travelbooking”, during setup. As this information is sent during setup, it caneasily made available to the called party by presenting the informationto said party, before said party is asked to decide whether to acceptthe incoming request or not.

From the called party's view it is advantage to get access toinformation about an incoming voice call request before having to decidewhether to accept the call or not.

From a calling party's view it increases the possibility to reach thecalled party by presenting the information that may be of interest tothe called party, which information may cause the called party tointerrupt the on-going business and take the call.

Also by being provided information on the incoming voice call request,the called party can decrease the number of times of accepting anincoming call being less important than the ongoing activity.

There is however a major obstacle to this message presentationpossibility and that is that IMS is not yet fully supported, which meansthat the communication of the information as indicated above is notpossible and will not be possible in the near future.

The state of the art service, Calling line identity presentation (CLIP)however, enables the called party to view the calling party's telephonenumber before deciding whether to accept the incoming request or not.

A user of a phone may also associate a phone number with the full nameor a picture of the person owning the telephone. This association maysubsequently be used by the called party, when being called by thecalling party, in a way such that the full name or the picture of thecalling party is presented to the called party during the call setup.This information is thus provided by the called party and is thereforenot provided automatically from the network. This solution has to bespecified in beforehand and is also static since it does not providedata to be dynamic or to be updated on receipt of a call.

Moreover, for voice calls a delay of less than typically 150 ms isrequired to obtain a user satisfaction without echoing and perceiveddelays in the voice communication. Packet switched bearers with such lowlatency set high demands on the network and are for this reason stillnot widely spread as for today.

Such PS bearers are however expected in true 3G networks.

There is thus a need to overcome the deficiencies as mentioned above andto provide a solution for voice calls with a high user satisfaction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed towards solving the problem of providing acalled party with information related to a voice call from a callingparty, before responding to the voice call between the calling party andthe called party.

This is achieved by separately providing and obtaining, respectively, inreal time information related to the voice call from the calling partydevice to the called party device.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a method forproviding in real time information related to the voice call from thecalling party to the called party.

According to one aspect of this invention, this object is achieved by amethod for providing voice call related information from a first partydevice to a second party device, prior to establishing a voice callbetween the first party device and the second party device, comprisingthe steps of sending in real time the voice call related information bythe first party device to the second party device over a packet switchednetwork, and sending a call setup message over a circuit switchednetwork, of the voice call by the first party device, so that the voicecall related information can be presented to a user of the second partydevice before responding to the call setup message.

A second aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the first aspect, further comprising the stepof receiving by the first party device over the packet switched networkan acknowledgement from the second party device of receipt of the voicecall related information, and wherein the step of sending a call setupis performed in dependence of receiving the acknowledgement. A thirdaspect of the present invention is directed towards a method includingthe features of the first aspect, wherein the voice call relatedinformation and the call setup message comprise an identifier of theuser of the first party device.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the third aspect, wherein the voice callrelated information comprises an information type indicator.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the first aspect, wherein the voice callrelated information further comprises data related to the user of thefirst party device.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a method forobtaining in real time information related to the voice call from thecalling party to the called party.

According to a sixth aspect of present invention, this object isachieved by a method for obtaining voice call related information by asecond party device from a first party device, prior to responding to acall setup message from the first party device, comprising the steps ofreceiving in real time the voice call related information by the secondparty device over a packet switched network, receiving the call setupmessage by the second party device from the first party device over acircuit switched network, and responding by the second party device tothe first party device over the circuit switched network to the callsetup message, in dependence of the voice call related informationreceived over the packet switched network.

A seventh aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the sixth aspect, further comprising the stepof sending an acknowledgement by the second party device of receipt ofthe voice call related information, to the first party device over thepacket switched network.

An eighth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the sixth aspect, wherein the voice callrelated information and the call setup message comprise an identifier ofthe user of the first party device.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the eighth aspect, wherein the voice callrelated information comprises an information type indicator, whichinformation type indicator indicates that the voice call relatedinformation is to be used to present information upon receiving the callsetup by the second party device.

A tenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the eighth aspect, wherein the voice callrelated information further comprises data related to the user of thefirst party device. An eleventh aspect of the present invention isdirected towards a method including the features of the eighth aspect,further comprising the step of associating the received call setup withthe received voice call related information, by matching the first partydevice user identifier comprised in the voice call related informationand the first party device user identifier comprised in the call setup,so that the voice call related information can be presented to the userof the second party device before responding to the call setup message.

A twelfth aspect of the present invention is directed towards a methodincluding the features of the eleventh aspect, wherein the step ofassociating further comprises presenting the voice call relatedinformation by the second party device.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a device forproviding in real time information related to the voice call from thecalling party to the called party.

According to a thirteenth aspect of present invention, this object isachieved by a portable communication device for providing voice callrelated information over a packet switched network to a communicationdevice for receiving voice call related information, comprising atransceiving unit, arranged to send the voice call related informationin real time over a packet switched network to the communication deviceand to send a call setup message over a circuit switched network to thecommunication device, a user input unit, arranged to receive user inputfrom a user of the portable communication device, and a control unit,connected to the user input unit and the transceiving unit, arranged tocontrol sending in real time the voice call related information over thepacket switched network and to control sending the call setup messageover the circuit switched network, so that voice call relatedinformation can be presented to a user of the communication device forreceiving the voice call related information.

A fourteenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards aportable communication device including the features of the thirteenthaspect, in which the transceiving unit further is arranged to receive anacknowledgement of receipt of received voice call related informationover a packet switched network, and in which the control unit further isarranged to detect receiving the acknowledgement over the packetswitched network.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a device forobtaining in real time information related to the voice call from thecalling party to the called party.

According to a fifteenth aspect of present invention, this object isachieved by a portable communication device for obtaining voice callrelated information over a packet switched network from a communicationdevice for providing voice call related information, comprising atransceiving unit, arranged to receive the voice call relatedinformation in real time over the packet switched network from thecommunication device, to receive a call setup message from thecommunication device over a circuit switched network, and to respond tothe communication device over the circuit switched network to the callsetup message, a user input unit, arranged to receive user input from auser of the portable communication device, and a control unit, connectedto the user input unit and the transceiving unit, arranged to controlreceiving in real time the voice call related information from thecommunication device over the packet switched network, to controlreceiving the call setup message from the communication device over thecircuit switched network, and to control responding to the call setupmessage to the communication device over the circuit switched network,so that voice call related information can be presented to the user ofthe portable communication device.

A sixteenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards acommunication device including the features of the fifteenth aspect, inwhich the transceiving unit further is arranged to send anacknowledgement of receipt of the voice call related information to thecommunication device over the packet switched network, and in which thecontrol unit further is arranged to control sending the acknowledgementof receipt of the voice call related information to the communicationdevice over the packet switched network.

A seventeenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards acommunication device including the features of the fifteenth aspect,further comprising a memory unit, connected to the control unit, andarranged to provide storage of and access to voice call relatedinformation, and wherein the control unit further is arranged to read aninformation type indicator comprised in the voice call relatedinformation and arranged to store the voice call related information inthe memory unit, in dependence of the information type indicator.

An eighteenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards acommunication device including the features of the sixteenth aspect,further comprising an associating unit, connected to the control unitand the memory unit, arranged to associate the received call setup withthe received voice call related information, by matching an identifierof the user of the communication device in the voice call relatedinformation and an identifier of the user of the communication device inthe call setup, so that the voice call related information can bepresented to the user of the portable communication device beforeresponding to the call setup message.

A nineteenth aspect of the present invention is directed towards acommunication device including the features of the thirteenth or thefifteenth aspect.

Within the description as found below, the expression “calling party” issynonymous with the “user of the portable communication device forproviding voice call related information”, in the same way as the“called party” is synonymous with the “user of the portablecommunication device for obtaining voice call related information”.

The present invention has the following overall advantages:

The present invention provides the possibility to a calling party totake advantage of the capabilities to present information about thecalling party and the voice call, it also provides the advantage ofusing a circuit switched network for the call setup, thereby avoidinguneven delaying and echoing which would ruin any user experience.

For the calling party the present invention increases the possibility toreach through to the called party by presenting the information that canbe of interest to the called party, which information may cause thecalled party to interrupt the on-going business and take the call. Theinvention as presented herein, is beneficial for the called party inthat it provides the advantage of giving a help in sorting out whichvoice calls may be worthwhile to take, thereby decreasing the number ofinterruptions of any on-going work.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when usedin this specification is taken to specify the presence of statedfeatures, integers, steps or components, but does not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,components or groups thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described in more detail in relationto the enclosed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically shows a portable communication device for providingvoice call related information, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention,

FIG. 2 schematically shows a portable communication device for obtainingvoice call related information, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention, according to the present invention,

FIG. 3 presents a flow-chart of a method for providing voice callinformation, according to one embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 4 discloses a flow-chart of a method for obtaining voice callinformation, according to one embodiment of the present invention, and

FIG. 5 schematically shows a portable communication device, according toa preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates to providing voice call relatedinformation from the calling party to the called party in real time.

The present invention thus provides a user of for instance a mobilephone, being one example of a portable communication device, that is thecalled party, an opportunity to gain information in real time about anin-coming circuit switched voice call from the calling party, beforeanswering the voice call. Before answering an in-coming circuit switchedvoice call, information on the content of the voice call, the name andidentity of the calling party, the importance of the voice call, thepriority of the voice call etc., at least according to the callingparty, may be presented to the called party. This information may thenbe consumed by the called party before deciding whether to accept orreject the in-coming circuit switched voice call.

For example, in case a calling party is not successful in reaching acalled party with a voice call, the calling party may utilize thepresent invention. The calling party may then furnish the portablecommunication device being used, such as a mobile phone, with data thatis pertinent to the voice call that he is eager to establish with thecalled party. The calling party may at this stage insert his full name,the priority of the voice call, the subject of the voice call, forinstance “Urgent discussion about Asian orders”, or “CEO is waiting”, tomention two examples only.

As the calling party has not been successful in establishing a voicecall with the called party, due to the called party rejected thein-coming call request or simply not answering to the voice call, thecalling party is now sending an information message to the callingparty. The information contained in this message is presented to thecalled party at the time when the called party receives an incomingvoice call request. Since the message may contain useful and interestinginformation to the called party, the called party is more likely toaccept the circuit switched voice call request, thereby establishing thevoice call which the calling party was eager to establish with thecalled party.

With reference to the FIGS. 1 and 2, schematically showing a portablecommunication device for providing and obtaining, respectively, voicecall related information, according to the present invention, saidpresent invention is now explained.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the portablecommunication device 100 for providing information to the called partycomprises a transceiving unit 102 that is arranged to send voice callrelated information in real time to the called party over a packetswitched network, a user input unit 104, that is arranged to receiveuser input from a user of said portable communication device 100, thatis the calling party, and a memory unit 108 that is arranged to be ableto store and to contain various voice call related information messagesor drafts thereof. These messages typically comprise descriptors such as“Name of the calling party”, “Subject of voice call”, “Priority of voicecall” and a “Ring tone” selected by the calling party, to be used whenalerting the called party, upon receipt of a setup message, as will beexplained in more detail down below.

The portable communication device according to this embodiment alsocomprises a control unit 106 that is connected to the transceiving unit102, the user input unit 104, the memory unit 108 in turn is connectedto the transceiving unit 102, according to this embodiment, and whichcontrol unit 106 is arranged to control the functions of the other unitscomprised in the portable communication device 100, that is, to controlthe sending in real time of the voice call related information over thepacket switched network to the called party, control the storing andrecalling of the various voice call related messages and drafts thereof,and the control the receiving of user inputs from the user input unit104. Moreover, the transceiving unit 102 is also arranged to send a callsetup message over a circuit switched network to a communication deviceof the called party. This setup message is sent from the portablecommunication device 100 of the calling party to the device of thecalled party in order to set up the circuit switched voice call betweenthe calling party and the called party. Consequently, the control unit106 is also arranged to control sending the call setup message over thecircuit switched network.

With reference to FIG. 2 schematically presenting a portablecommunication device 200 for obtaining voice call related informationover a packet switched network from a communication device, according toone embodiment of the present invention, the method for obtaining thevoice call related information is now explained.

Similar to the portable communication device 100 as presented in FIG. 1,this portable communication device 200 as presented in FIG. 2, forobtaining voice call related information over a packet switched network,comprises a transceiving unit 202, a user input unit 204, a control unit206 and a memory unit 208. Again, the control unit 206 is connected tothe transceiving unit 202, the user input unit 204 and the memory unit208. The transceiving unit 202 is here arranged to receive voice callrelated information in real time over the packet switched network and toreceive the setup message from a communication device of the callingparty, over a circuit switched network and to respond to the call setupmessage to the communication device over the circuit switched network.The user input unit 204 is now arranged to receive user input from userof the portable communication device 200, that is the called party. Thememory unit 208 is arranged to provide storing of received voice callrelated information messages and to provide access to the stored voicecall related information messages upon receiving a circuit switchedvoice call setup message by the transceiving unit 202. The control unit206 of the portable communication device 200 is arranged to control thereceiving in real time of the voice call related information from thecommunication device over the packet switched network, to control thereceiving of the setup message from a communication device of thecalling party over a circuit switched network, to control responding tothe communication device to the call setup message over the circuitswitched network and also to control responding to the call setupmessage to the communication over a circuit switched network, as will beexplained down below.

The portable communication device according to this embodiment alsocomprises an information presenting unit 212 and an associating unit210. The associating unit 210 is connected to both the control unit 206and the memory unit 208 and is arranged to associate a stored voice callrelated information with a circuit switched voice call setup as sent bythe calling party device and received by the called party device. Theinformation presenting unit 212 is arranged to present the voice callrelated information to the user of the portable communication deviceupon receipt of a circuit switched voice call setup from thecommunication device of the calling party. In order to further describethe present invention, the method for providing voice call relatedinformation, according to one embodiment of the present invention, willnow be explained, and in connection reference will be given to FIG. 3.

According to one embodiment of the present invention the method forproviding voice call related information comprises, the step ofobtaining a caller record, being one type of voice call relatedinformation, step 302. Within this step the portable communicationdevice of the calling party obtains voice call related information byreceiving user input via the user input unit 104, by reading voice callrelated messages, or drafts thereof, stored in a memory unit 108, or bya combination of the two mentioned ways. Voice call related informationmay however also be obtained in other ways.

It is thus at this stage where the calling party defines what type ofinformation he would like to present to the called party. Informationtypically comprise descriptors as mentioned above, such as “Name of thecalling party”, “Subject of voice call”, <'>“Priority of voice call” anda “Ring tone”, which may be specified or verified by the calling party.This information may also contain links to URL-sites on the web fromwhich further information such as pictures, ring tones etc. may beavailable. Suggestions or drafts of entries to these descriptors may ofcourse be available in the memory unit 108. The calling party may usethe user input unit 102 to insert entries to these descriptors. Thecalling party may however alternatively insert entries by using othermeans or functions, such as voice control, voice recognition, by using atouch screen, in which case the portable communication device 100 isequipped with a touch screen, or possibly connected to one.

The caller record also comprises a descriptor identifying the caller.According to this embodiment of the present invention, the descriptioncomprises the phone number of the caller, of which the telephonesubscriber identity is one example.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention theidentifying descriptor comprises other information identifying thecaller. Examples of such information are a randomly generated number orcombination of digits and alphabetical characters, a randomly calculatednumber, a precise timestamp, etc, to mention a few examples of uniquecontent of the identifying descriptor.

Since the efficiency of the voice call related information to be sent tothe called party relies on the reaction by the called party whom isreceiving the voice call related information, the entries anddescriptors are preferably selected and specified by the calling partywith care. However, an erroneous or misleading description as voice callrelated information may soon have the opposite effect, such that thecalled person does not prioritize or down-prioritizes voice calls from acertain person, here the calling party.

At the step of obtaining a caller record, step 302, the portablecommunication device 100 may store the voice call related informationthe memory unit 108. Having obtained the voice call related information,this is sent in the step of sending in real time the caller recordcomprising the caller phone number over a packet switched network to thecalled party, step 304. This step is performed by the transceiving unit102 of the portable communication device 100, under the control of thecontrol unit 106.

According to one embodiment of the present, it is the phone number ofthe caller (=calling party), which is the descriptor identifying thecaller.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention it isimportant that the caller record message is sent in real time or inpractice, in substantially real time, since sending a message over apacket switched network may take a much too long time until receipt ofinformation by the recipient.

The present invention involves sending voice call related informationfrom a calling party to a called party before setting up the circuitswitched voice call. The time required for sending the information tothe called party, has to be short in order to provide an acceptable userexperience. The time duration between sending the voice call relatedinformation until the receipt by the calling party of an acknowledgesent by the called party, may be on the order of 5-10 seconds. It wouldbe not be advantageous to prolong this time duration, for which reasonit is important to send the voice call related information in real timeover the packet switched network.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 4, schematically showing a portablecommunication device for obtaining voice call related information,according to one embodiment of the present invention, and disclosing aflow-chart of a method for obtaining voice call information, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention, respectively, the method forobtaining voice call related information is now proceeded.

After step 304 the sent voice call related information is now receivedby the called party, according to the step 402, of receiving callerrecord comprising the caller phone number in real time over a packetswitched network.

The voice call related information sent by the calling party andreceived by the called party, is now available by the portablecommunication device 200 for obtaining voice call related information.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, having receivedthe information, the step of reading a message type identifier comprisedin the caller record is now performed, step 404. Within this step thecontrol unit 206 of the portable communication device 200 reads, oraccording to an alternative embodiment of the present invention,controls the message type identifier of the voice call relatedinformation.

The message type identifier for the purpose of identifying the type ofmessage may be of any type, for instance an identifier that indicates afirst state when being present, and a second when being absent, oralternatively an identifier that may have two or more states, indicatingtwo or more status states.

According to one embodiment of the present invention the message typeidentifier being used may be a two-state identifier, which indicatesthat the received message indeed is voice call related information to beused in the present invention for instance. During this stage, step 404,the control unit 206 thus reads the message type identifier of theinformation that was received in step 402.

Having performed step 404 by the control unit 206 of the portablecommunication unit 200, the step 406, storing the caller record independence of the read message type identifier, follows. Since thecontrol unit 206 identified that the received message indeed was acaller record, being one type of voice call related information, thecaller record is stored in the memory unit 208.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the caller recordcomprises the phone number of the calling party, being one example ofthe descriptor identifying the calling party, as mentioned above. Thedescriptor identifying the calling party is used to link the storedvoice call related information with an in-coming circuit switched voicecall setup, as will be described below. The circuit switched voice callsetup also comprises the descriptor identifying the calling party, whichn this case is the phone number of the calling party. By storing thedescriptor identifying the calling party already at the stage at whichthe voice call related information is received, a subsequent associationof the voice call related information with the circuit switched voicecall setup, is enabled. This association enables certifying that thecorrect voice call related information is presented to the called party,before having to decide whether to accept, reject or ignore thein-coming circuit switched voice call.

According to an alternative embodiment the voice call relatedinformation comprises links URL-sites on the web or to servers or otherdata locations. Information such as pictures, video clips and ring tonesbe gained by fetching information from these locations, in a manner wellknown to a person skilled in the art.

Having stored the voice call related information in dependence of theread message type identifier in step 406, follows the step of sending anacknowledgement of received caller record in real time over the packetswitched network, step 408. This acknowledgement is sent by thetransceiving unit 202 under the control of the control unit 206.

This acknowledgement sent in real time by the portable communicationdevice 200 for obtaining voice call related information, is thereafterreceived by the transceiving unit 102 of the portable communicationdevice 100 for providing voice call related information, in the step ofreceiving in real time an acknowledgement of received caller record,step 306, as the acknowledgement is sent from the called party device tothe calling party device. The calling party device has now received anacknowledgement of received voice call related information from thecalled party device, meaning that the sent voice call relatedinformation is available by the called party device and ready to bepresented to the called party upon request.

Upon receiving the acknowledgement by the transceiving unit 102 thecontrol unit 106 is notified. According to one embodiment of the presentinvention, it is a prerequisite for the control unit 106 to receive anotification from the transceiving unit 102 that an acknowledgement hasbeen received by the transceiving unit 102 from the called party device,before the method of providing voice call related information to acalled part device can continue. Receiving an acknowledgement by thetransceiving unit 102 may thus function as a trigger for proceeding themethod by the called party device 200.

Having received an acknowledgement in real time by the transceiving unit102 over the packet switched network, the step of sending a call setupmessage comprising the phone number of the calling party, which is oneexample of the descriptor identifying the calling party, over a circuitswitched network, is performed. A call setup message is thus send over anetwork that is different from the network on which the calling partydevice received the acknowledgement in real time.

One reason for sending the call setup message over a circuit switchednetwork and not over a packet switched network is the problem concerningdelays and the variation of delays in the packet switched networks ofthe present state of art.

Upon sending the voice call setup message comprising the phone number ofthe caller over the circuit switched network, in step 308, by thetransceiving unit 102 under the control of the control unit 106 of theportable communication device 100, the call setup message is received bythe transceiving unit 202 of the portable communication device 200 inthe step of receiving the call setup comprising the caller phone numberover a circuit switched network, step 410. The call setup is typicallyreceived by the transceiving unit 202 within about one to two secondsfrom the time of sending the call setup by the calling party device 100.

The called party device has now received both voice call relatedinformation as stored in the memory unit 208 and a call setup, asreceived in the step 410.

The received call setup message in step 410 may be related to anycalling person and may therefore not have anything to do with thereceived voice call related information, that may have been receivedearlier, in step 402. In order to determine whether there is any voicecall related information stored in the memory unit 208 of the calledparty device 200, which voice call related information relates to thecalling party, the step of 412 is performed, by the associating unit 210of the called party device 200, that is associating the phone numbercomprised in the voice call setup message and the phone number in thereceived caller record, by matching them. A successful matching of thedescriptors identifying the calling party, according to one embodimentof the present invention, means that the phone number of the voice callrelated information stored in the memory unit 208, is the same phonenumber of the calling party of the circuit switched voice call setup.This implies that there is voice call related information present in thememory unit 208 that relates to the calling party of the circuitswitched voice call setup.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention thedescriptor identifying the calling party may comprises otherinformation, as mentioned earlier in connection to step 302.

In case a randomly generated number or combination of digits andalphabetical characters, a randomly calculated number, a precisetimestamp, etc, was included in the caller record as a descriptor foridentifying the calling party, this information content is alsocomprised in the circuit switched voice call setup, and is thereforecomprised in the information being received in setup 410. A successfulmatching of the descriptor identifying the calling party thereforeincludes the determination that the randomly generated number orcombination of digits and alphabetical characters, the randomlycalculated number, the precise timestamp, or the like, comprised in thevoice call related information as received in step 402 is the same therandomly generated number or combination of digits and alphabeticalcharacters, the randomly calculated number, the precise timestamp, orthe like, comprised in the circuit switched voice call setup, asreceived in step 410.

Subsequent to the matching, in step 412, the next step of presenting thecaller record, that is the voice call related information, associatedwith the matching phone number to the called party, step 414, isperformed.

According to one embodiment of the present invention the descriptoritself identifying the calling party, that was used in the matchingstep, step 412, is not presented to the called party in step 414.

The user of the called party device thus receives information from theuser of the calling party device, which information is intended to helpthe called party making better decisions on whether to accept anin-coming circuit switched voice call or to reject it.

The descriptors as mentioned above may be presented to the called partyat this stage. In connection to presenting information contained in thevoice call related information, a ring tone that may be specified by thecalling party may now be activated within the called party device toalert the user of the portable communication device for obtaining voicecall related information. In this way the called party may receivespecific information about the importance of the voice call, thepriority of the call and so on. With the help from the presentedinformation the called party may thus easily determine whether it isworthwhile to answer the circuit switched voice call by accepting thecall, rejecting it or simply ignoring it. Having access to the voicecall related information as sent by the calling party, the called partyreacts to the information as presented in step 414 by the informationpresenting unit 212 of the called party device 200, after which step 416is performed, sending rejection/acceptance of the call over the circuitswitched network. Based upon user input from the called party by usingthe user input unit 204, the transceiving unit 202 sends either arejection or an acceptance as a response to the call setup, over thecircuit switched network, under the control of the control unit 206.

Having sent the rejection or the acceptance as an answer to the callsetup, the step of 310 follows, receiving rejection or acceptance of thecall over the circuit switched network, by the transceiving unit 102 ofthe portable communication device 100 of the calling party. By receivingan acceptance to the circuit switched call setup, the circuit switchedcall is established between the calling party and the called party andby receiving a rejection to the call setup, it is clear that the circuitswitched voice call setup did not result in a circuit switched voicecall between the two parties.

By referring to FIG. 5 schematically showing a portable communicationdevice, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, itis indicated that each one of the portable communication device forproviding voice call related information 100 and the portablecommunication device for obtaining voice call related information 200,may be a mobile phone.

It is emphasized that this invention can be varied in many ways, ofwhich the alternative embodiments above only are examples of a few.These different embodiments are hence non-limiting examples. The scopeof the present invention, however, is only limited by the subsequentlyfollowing claims.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, thesending of a circuit switched voice call setup message in step 308 fromthe calling party device may be performed upon expiration of a timeperiod from the time of sending the caller record, in step 304.According to another embodiment of the present invention, the voice callsetup is sent over the circuit switched network independently of thetime at which the voice call related information is sent over the packetswitched network. According to these two alternative embodiments thevoice call related information may be stored in the memory unit 208 incase the voice call related information is received before the circuitswitched voice call setup is received by the called party device, as isdescribed above. If however the voice call related information isreceived after the circuit switched voice call setup is received, thatis that the circuit switched voice call setup message is received atfirst, the circuit switched voice call setup is put on hold during acertain time, during which the voice call related information isawaited. This time duration may be implemented as a timeout, and if thevoice call related information is received before expiration of thetimeout, the voice call related information may be associated with thecircuit switched voice call setup, provided that the descriptorsidentifying the calling party, comprised in the two pieces ofinformation match, so that the voice call related information may bepresented to the called party by the called party device.

According to an alternative embodiment the order of the steps within theflow-charts as presented in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be different. Certainsteps may be included in others or even be deleted.

Within the portable communication device as schematically shown in FIGS.1 and 2, the functional units may be connected differently to each otherand some units may even be comprised in other units. Moreover somefunctions that are addressed to certain units may be performed by otherunits or in combination with more units. Obviously, other units than theones as presented in said FIGS. 1 and 2, may be included in the portablecommunication devices.

The described present invention thus carries the following overalladvantages:

The present invention provides the possibility to a calling party totake advantage of the capabilities to present information about thecalling party and the voice call.

The present invention also provides the advantage of using a circuitswitched network for the call setup, thereby avoiding uneven delayingand echoing which would ruin any user experience.

For the calling party the present invention increases the possibility toreach through to the called party by presenting the information that canbe of interest to the called party, which information may cause thecalled party to interrupt the on-going business and take the call.

For the called party the invention as presented herein, provides theadvantage of giving a help in sorting out which circuit switched voicecalls may be worthwhile to take, decreasing the number of interruptionsof any on-going work.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: transmitting, by afirst device and prior to establishing a voice call between the firstdevice and a second device, information associated with the voice callto the second device over a packet switched network, the informationincluding an identifier associated with a user of the first device;receiving, at the first device, an acknowledgement from the seconddevice over the packet switched network, the acknowledgement beingreceived as a response to transmitting the information associated withthe voice call to the second device; and transmitting, by the firstdevice and based on receiving the acknowledgement over the packetswitched network, a call setup message to the second device over acircuit switched network, the call setup message including theidentifier, and the circuit switched network being different from thepacket switched network.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:obtaining the information associated with the voice call, whereobtaining the information includes: providing one or more caller entriesto the user, and receiving a selection of at least one of the one ormore caller entries, and where the information associated with the voicecall comprises the at least one of the one or more caller entries. 3.The method of claim 1, where the identifier comprises at least one of: aphone number associated with the first device, information identifyingthe user of the first device, a timestamp, or a randomly generatedstring of one or more characters.
 4. The method of claim 1, where theinformation associated with the voice call further includes informationidentifying a type of call to be established between the first deviceand the second device.
 5. The method of claim 1, where transmitting theinformation associated with the voice call comprises: determining thatan attempt to establish a previous voice call was unsuccessful; andtransmitting the information associated with the voice call based ondetermining that the attempt to establish the previous voice call wasunsuccessful.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving,based on determining that the previous voice call was unsuccessful, oneor more descriptors associated with the voice call, where theinformation associated with the voice call includes the received one ormore descriptors.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:obtaining data related to the user of the first device, where theinformation associated with the voice call includes the obtained data.8. A method comprising: receiving, by a first device and prior toestablishing a voice call between the first device and a second device,information associated with the voice call from the second device, theinformation being received via a packet switched network, and theinformation including an identifier associated with a user of the seconddevice; transmitting, by the first device, a response associated withthe information to the second device via the packet switched network;receiving, by the first device, a call setup message from the seconddevice via a circuit switched network, the call setup message includingthe identifier, and the circuit switched network being different fromthe packet switched network; associating, by the first device, theinformation with the call setup message based on the identifier; andestablishing, by the first device, the voice call with the second devicebased on associating the information with the call setup message.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, where the information includes data identifying theinformation as being related to the voice call, and where theinformation is associated with the call setup message based on the data.10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: presenting theinformation to a user of the first device based on receiving the callsetup message; and receiving an input from the user of the first devicebased on presenting the information, where the voice call is establishedbased on receiving the input.
 11. The method of claim 8, whereassociating the information with the call set up message includes:determining that the identifier included in the information matches theidentifier included in the call setup message, and associating theinformation with the call set up message based on determining that theidentifier included in the information matches the identifier includedin the call setup message.
 12. The method of claim 8, where theidentifier comprises at least one of: a phone number associated with thesecond device, information identifying the user of the second device, atimestamp associated with a transmission of the information to the firstdevice, or a randomly generated string of one or more characters. 13.The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining, based on theinformation, that a type of call requested to be established between thefirst device and the second device comprises the voice call; and storingthe information in a memory associated with the first device based onidentifying determining that the type of call requested to beestablished between the first device and the second device comprises thevoice call.
 14. The method of claim 8, where the information includesdata identifying the user of the second device, where the method furthercomprises: presenting, based on associating the information with thecall setup message, the data identifying the user of the second device,and where the data identifying the user of the second device does notinclude the identifier.
 15. A first device comprising: a control unit,at least partially implemented in hardware, to: cause, prior toestablishing a voice call between the first device and a second device,information associated with the voice call to be transmitted to thesecond device over a packet switched network, the information includingan identifier associated with a user of the first device, determinewhether an acknowledgement from the second device has been received overthe packet switched network as a response to the information beingtransmitted, and cause, when the acknowledgement has been received overthe packet switched network, a call setup message, including theidentifier, to be transmitted to the second device over a circuitswitched network, the circuit switched network being different from thepacket switched network.
 16. The first device of claim 15, where thecontrol unit is further to: obtain the information associated with thevoice call, where, when obtaining the information, the control unit isto: cause one or more caller entries to be presented via a display ofthe first device, and receive a selection of at least one of the one ormore caller entries, and where the information includes the at least oneof the one or more caller entries.
 17. The first device of claim 15,where the identifier comprises at least one of: a phone numberassociated with the first device, information identifying the user ofthe first device, a timestamp, or a randomly generated string of one ormore characters.
 18. The first device of claim 15, where, when theacknowledgement has not been received, the control unit is further to:determine an expiration of a period of time from a time that theinformation was transmitted, and cause the call set up message to betransmitted based on determining the expiration of the period of time.19. The first device of claim 15, where, when causing the informationassociated with the voice call to be transmitted, the control unit isto: determine that an attempt to establish a previous voice call wasunsuccessful, and cause the information associated with the voice callto be transmitted based on determining that the attempt to establish theprevious voice call was unsuccessful.
 20. The first device of claim 19,where the control unit is further to: receive, based on determining thatthe attempt to establish the previous voice call was unsuccessful, oneor more descriptors from a user of the first device, where theinformation associated with the voice call includes the received one ormore descriptors, and where the one or more descriptors include one ormore of: information identifying a subject of the voice call, or auniform resource locator that enables the second device to retrieve theinformation from a network device associated with the first device.